Save me
by MerchDoyle
Summary: Reed's acting strangely. The last thing he needs is a reminder of the past, but then again life isn't supposed to be easy. Please r&r.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own the F4 characters.

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Reed bolted up in bed breathing heavily. It was a cool night yet sweat was dripping off him like he'd just come out of the shower. He looked down at Sue, his wife hadn't stirred, he resented her for sleeping so soundly.

He slowly lay back down and closed his eyes hoping to go back to sleep, but every time he closed his eyes, he saw another pair staring back at him. Eyes so full of hatred and malice that Reed felt fear grip him and he kept having to open his own.

He looked around his room, it was dark. His clock read 3.05 am, the sun wouldn't be coming up for a long time yet.

Sighing quietly he pushed back his side of the duvet cover and slowly climbed out of bed and put on his slippers. Johnny had given them to him the Christmas before last. He had teased him about them, saying they were 'Grandpa slippers' to go with the hairdo he had been given along with the elasticated abilities he had acquired during the cosmic storm up in space more than two years ago.

He slowly crept out of his room and walked down the hall. A puzzled look crossed his face when he saw light coming from under the kitchen door, and he slowly pushed it open.

"Hi!" a familiar voice greeted him as the door opened fully and he saw Johnny standing by the cupboard.

Reed smiled at the young man, "You couldn't sleep either?" he asked him, noticing the hot chocolate powder in his hand.

"Nah," was the reply as Johnny opened the lid, "Not gone yet," he said, knowing fully well Reed was raising his eyebrows behind his back. "I wanted to watch a movie, it just finished," he explained, "Making myself a little night-cap before I turn in," he turned and grinned.

Reed nodded and pulled out a chair, and sank into it.

Picking up on his brother in-law's discomfort, Johnny pulled out another cup from the cupboard and spooned some cocoa powder into it. He placed both cups on the table, and then got some milk to put in the cups, and sat down opposite Reed.

"It's not hot," the older man pointed out.

"What?" Johnny said with sarcastic surprise, "Silly me," he, he joked trying to get Reed to smile. He eventually got one and then fire balled the cups to heat the milk.

"I remember when they milk used to boil over," Reed said pulling the cup towards himself.

"I remember when you used to sleep all night," the younger man pointed out sipping his hot chocolate. "Not the first night, is it?" he asked Reed who was silent. "You used to have bags, now you have suitcases," he said touching the eye area under his own eyes when Reed glanced at him.

"Funny," he said sarcastically, and sipped his drink.

Johnny smiled slightly, "You'd be laughing if it was funny," he pointed out. "I was going to joke about Sue keeping you up all night, but it isn't that," he said seriously. "You want to talk about?" he asked taking another sip.

Reed shook his head, "No," he answered, drinking more of his drink.

The young man nodded, and drank his own drink.

"So what film did you watch?" Reed asked changing the subject.

Johnny shrugged, "Just some film about a devil hand, you wouldn't have liked it," he said.

Reed nodded "Idle Hands?" he asked, and smirked as he saw Johnny's surprised face. "Watched it with your sister once," he said, "She has a thing for Seth Green," he added.

Johnny smiled, "Yeah… she's seen 'Without a Paddle' at least ten times," he sipped more of his drink. "If you don't mind I'm going to go to bed," he said finishing his hot chocolate.

"No problem," Reed told him, "I'll be going soon," he said, and watched as Johnny took his empty cup to the sink and leave the kitchen.

However when Reed finished his drink, instead of taking his cup to where his brother in law had taken his, he went to the cupboard and began making himself another.

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a/n. i tried to swap a chapter, and clicked the wrong button, but i didn't know. so my li'l sis, so cute, thought she was saving time for me and proceeded to click the delete buttons. i was making tea at the time to save time until the page loaded (i have an obsession with time). so here is the first chapter... again. it was called 'can't save everyone,' but i decided to change it, so sorry for those who have already read it.


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own the F4 characters, so please don't sue me. I don't own 'Friends' either.

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"What do you want a boy or a girl?" Reed and Sue were lying on the couch in front of the television watching a 'Friend's' repeat. It was the one where Rachel gave birth to her daughter, and it sparked the all too familiar 'baby talk' among the two of them.

Reed shrugged, "It doesn't matter so long as it's healthy," he told her with a smile, and affectionately stroked her stomach. For the past month the two had been trying for a baby, but so far nothing was working, but that didn't stop them from pre-planning. They had decided on her father's name if the baby was a boy, and his mother's name of the baby was a girl. For some reason Reed wasn't keen on naming the child after his own father, but Sue never pressed the subject.

"You ok?" she asked him looking concerned, "You seem tired," she observed.

"I'm fine," he assured her, kissing the top of her head.

"You went out in the middle of the night," she told him, "Where did you go?" she asked. Her reply was a shrug. "Tell me," she begged, "We're married, married people don't keep secrets from each other," she pointed out. He was still silent, so she tried guessing, "Is it work?" she asked, "I know you've been working on theories a lot lately, are you worried about cold fusion?"

Reed laughed, "No, it's not cold fusion," he replied grinning a little.

"So it is something," she observed, and his face went straight, and he looked away. "What is it Reed?" she asked, "Don't you want to be a father?" her voice came across a little weak, as if she was close to tears.

Her husband turned to face her and he saw her eyes shining with tears. "Oh Sue," he said, tightening his arms a little, "Of course I want to be a father," he said softly. "I'm just worried that I'll make a bad father," he said. "I didn't have the best relationship with mine," he confessed.

Sue released herself from her husband's arms so she could sit up and face him properly. "Of course you're going to be a great father," she told him. "I know you don't talk to him now, but that doesn't mean you'll have the same relationship with your child as you had with him." She stroked the side of his face, and moved her hand up to ruffle his hair. "You're so tense," she told him, "Remember that's what the doctor said? Stress can be a reason why we haven't conceived," she reminded him.

Before they began trying for a baby, the two had gone to the hospital to get checks to make sure their DNA alteration hadn't affected their chances of being able to start a family. All tests had come back negative, however the doctor had given them a list of reasons why maybe the process could be a little slow. They were told to relax, and try to stay stress free, although that was near impossible when you risked your life on a regular basis for a living.

"You thirsty?" Reed asked her, getting up "I'm going to get a drink."

Sue nodded, "Can you bring me back an orange juice?" she asked him, and he nodded. "And a bag of tortillas?" she gave him an innocent look.

"No problem," he smiled at her, and watched as she turned her head back to the television screen.

However, Reed didn't go to the kitchen straight away, he took a detour to his and Sue's room, something he did daily. He reached for a box under the bed and pulled out a box. Inside the box was a bunch of papers, but that's not what he was after. He riffled his hands through the papers until he found the bottle of small white pills that were hidden beneath them.

He opened the bottle, and took one out, before closing the lid tightly. He hid the bottle back under the papers, and pushed the box back under the bed. He then walked unto the kitchen, and pulled out two spoons, something else he did daily, and proceeded to crush the pill into a fine powder. He put the powder into a glass, and filled it with orange juice from the fridge, before pouring himself a coffee from the coffee maker, which was always on.

Before he left he stirred the juice, and grabbed a packet of tortillas from the above cupboard, and left the kitchen.

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	3. Chapter 3

I don't own the F4 characters.

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"You popped the question yet?" Johnny asked Ben when the two sat in a bar waiting for Reed to return with the tray of drinks.

The big orange man shook his head, "Not yet," he said, "I'm going to wait until the ring is finished," he told the younger man. Ben had taken his grandmother's ring into a jewellers to get it re-sized for Alicia. He had thought long and hard about proposing, but didn't know about the ring.

"What did you do with the other one?" Johnny asked him, meaning the ring he gave Debbie.

Ben glared at him before answering. "I gave it to my mother," he said, feeling a smile on his lips, "And then she pawned it," he laughed looking at the shocked expression on the younger man's face.

"She pawned it?" he echoed and received a nod. He couldn't imagine anyone related to Ben pawning anything.

"You just told him about the ring?" Reed asked grinning as he set the tray of drinks down on the table. He'd stretched his hand out so it was flat and held is steady to carry the drinks. Something, like kissing an invisible Sue, he had come to perfect.

Ben nodded as he reached for the metal tumbler that held his ale. "What about you then Sparky?" he asked Johnny, "We need to find you a woman," he teased.

Johnny sighed reaching for the beer and taking a sip, "I'm going to a bachelor!" he told them, "If I get a girlfriend, my fans will hate me," he said sitting back. "And I love the attention," he winked at a girl standing by the bar who had blown him a kiss.

Ben rolled his eyes and looked at Reed for a similar reaction, but the scientist's eyes had glazed over. He had already told the two of them that he wasn't drinking due to it affecting his 'fertility.' The truth was he didn't want to take sleeping pills with alcohol in his system. So, right now he was sitting there staring at a spot on the wall with his untouched soda in one hand. It was plain to see that Mr. Fantastic was somewhere that wasn't the taver with his two friends'. This worried Ben as he didn't have anything to blame. "You ok buddy?" he asked, knocking his elbow a little, but Reed's eyes remained locked on the wall he was staring at. "Earth to Reed," he said trying to snap him out of the trance he was in. He looked at Johnny who shrugged in confusion. Then a smile grew on the younger man's face.

He moved around to sit by his brother in law, and knocked the table whilst saying in a voice just a little louder than a whisper, "The cloud is accelerating."

The contents of the drink Reed had been holding was now all over the table, dripping on to his and Johnny's trousers. The man blinked and looked around as he tried to assess the situation at hand. It took a few seconds for him to realise he was in the tavern and not on the space station. Now he wished he was up in space, in fact he wished he was anywhere but surrounded by dozens of eyes on him. He forced a smile and nodded at them, and then looked back at his friends. "I'd best get a cloth," he smiled, and then stretched his arm across the room comically, and took hold of a sponge that was kept behind the counter. Just like he did when he ran out of toilet paper, and wiped up his spilt drink. He then returned it, long with his empty glass, and bought his arms back with a fresh glass of lemon ade.

"He does parties too!" Johnny called out to the amused crowd.

Neither he or Ben had time to find out what had been bothering him as they were soon surrounded by members of the public offering to buy them drinks, and just generally making a fuss.

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"I'm driving," Reed announced as he pulled the keys from his pocket. It was two hours later, and time for the trio to leave. They had told Sue and Alicia, who were having a girls night, that they would be home before midnight. They had less than twenty minutes.

"Hey," Johnny demanded, "Why do you get to drive?" putting his hand on his hips like a spoilt child.

"Because I think you and Ben have drank enough," he said. It was true, the two had drank enough to forget about Reed's funny turn. "Don't think about flaming on," Reed said reading the younger man's mind, "Remember what happened last time?" he winked at Ben who had the same amused expression on his face. The big orange man chuckled to himself at the memory of Johnny lying curled up on the bottom of this bed. It appeared the young man, after a heavy night of clubbing and boozing, had flown through the wrong window, then thought he was a dog.

It was a miracle he didn't hit the glass, anymore Smirnoff in his system, and they would have been scraping 'Johnny pancake' off the side of the building.

"Get in the car Tinkerbell," Ben said, still laughing, and opened the door to the passengers side before getting into the rear himself, as Reed sat in the drivers seat. The car started on the first turn of the key, and Reed slowly pulled out of the parking space.

Johnny reached and turned on the radio, causing "Who let the dogs out?" to blare through the speakers. Ben hated that song, and since both had a fair few beers inside them, it was a recipe for disaster. Reed groaned, stretching, and folding, his ears in a grotesque way so he could block out the mini war that was about to rage.

"Turn it down," Ben shouted, hitting the back on the hot head's seat, but the obnoxious young man was dancing to the music. "I said turn it down," Ben repeated, pounding the seat again. Grudgingly the music was turned down, but only because Johnny was beginning to feel sea sick with the constant shaking of the chair. The two then began arguing about something of no importance, and failed to notice Reed had slowed down until the car had stopped.

Both arguers looked up expecting to see a red light, but it wasn't a traffic signal that made Reed stop. There was a young girl standing in front of the car, her face streaked with tears, and her skin was pale in the streetlights. Reed slowly got out of the car, and moved slowly towards her. "Are you ok?" he asked her slowly and gently, putting up his arms to show he wasn't armed. Both Johnny and Ben stepped out of the car, both just standing there beside the vehicle.

"Please," the girl looked at Reed with pleading tear filled eyes, "Save me," she uttered. The scientist sensed she was going to pass out before her eyes began to roll back, and caught her body before it hit the floor.

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A/n I was sitting writing the end of this chapter in the park this after noon, and you know what happened? A damn seagull thought it had the right to go potty on my bag! Just thought I'd share that with you… heihei!


	4. author note

Due to ff.n printing this:

**"Entries not allowed:**

Non-stories: lists, bloopers, polls, previews, challenges, author notes, and etc. " 

I think it is stupid that you can't put an a.n as a chapter. So long as it isn't labelled above as a chapter, I mean how else is an author supposed to let theire readers know what's going on with their story? So, this is not a chapter.

A writer ponders...

Have you ever written something, and had it begins to reflect in actual reality? This has been happening a lot when I use topics that are realistic. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I am unable to complete this story at this particular moment in time. I need to wait until something blow over, and it could take months. I'll still continue my x-men crossover for those of you who know what I am talking about, and I will also post another story I have been working on instead of this one and another one I can't write anymore...

Sorry, and thanks to all those who have reviewed this so far.


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